KentishTownHealthCentre

ALLFORDHALLMONAGHAN MORRIS

Kentish Town Health Centre (KTHC)is a new health building in central London, housing a large GP practice and a wide range of health facilities. KTHC sets a new standard for the NHS.

The partnership of a local design champion, Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM) architects, and Camden & Islington Community Solutions has delivered a building where design allows services to be integrated as never before.

LAWFORD ROAD

PATSHULL ROAD

BARTHOLOMEW ROAD

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The project champion, Dr Roy Macgregor,initiated an RIBA competition for a building won by AHMM. Dr Macgregor’s vision was to create a wonderful building where not only medicine but health and art came together for the community. Ideas of transparency and connectivity were embraced by the architects and the whole team worked collaboratively to create a building that expresses the new, holistic approach to healthcare.

Kentish Town Health Centre provides an uplifting, inspiring environment of high quality for users and staff delivered through the LIFT procurement process, setting a new standard for modern health care provision.

KTHC creates a bold civic presence that responds to its environment. Referencing the brick and stucco, and architectural repetition, scale and forms of the surrounding housing, the ground floor is articulated as a brick plinth, with the rendered forms of the upper floors floating above. Cantilevered rooms at first and second floor provide substantially larger floorplates at these levels whilst allowing a small ground floor footprint and reducing the overall mass of the building.

Visual connections through Street

Sketch diagram of Street

Concept sketch of waiting room off

Fully accessible ground and first floors accommodate all public and clinical space, whilst the second floor is a private space for use by staff with teaching rooms. Some areas and rooms on the ground floor have been designed to be used out of clinic hours so have their own, discrete routes of access and security.

Jenga

Massing within context

Jenga concept applied to the Building

Volumes within Street

Jenga The building houses a large GP practice, paediatric, dental and children’s services, breast screening and diagnostic imaging, plus supporting office space, staff facilities, library and meeting rooms. Inspired by the game Jenga, the very complex inter-relationships of these uses were rigorously adjusted to create a very flexible internal space where staff and users feel connected and part of a whole.

External Spaces With the landscaping, as many existing trees as possible were retained including a number of London Planes, an Ash, a Lime and a Damson. The new landscape elements were designed to relate to the residential scale of gardens and pockets of green in surrounding streets. A series of small gardens and terraces are carved into the built form. These offer space to hold a discrete conversation, make a phone call or have a breath of fresh air and are open to both staff and patients.

Spacial AnalysisE

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Original James Wigg Practice Spacial Concept As Built

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7 Social Services Manager8 Duty Team Room9 Child Protection Officer10 Reach Office11 CNN Office12 Staff Room

1 Library2 Meeting Rooms3 Teaching Consultation Rooms4 Observation Room5 District Nursing/ Health Visiting/ Open Plan Office Space6 District Nurse Office

6 Diagnostic Imaging Suite 7 Podiatry8 Dentist Surgery9 Sterilisation10 X-Ray

1 Consultation Rooms2 Examination Rooms3 IT Office4 Out Patients & Paediatrics Suite 5 Treatment Room1

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6 Treatment Rooms7 Gym/Health Promotion8 Reception9 GP ‘Hotdesk’10 Admin hub11 Immunisation Room

1 Consultant Rooms2 Café3 Toilets4 Examination Rooms5 Office Space

1 Document Store

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Key datesAugust 2002

September 2005September 2005

March 2007May 2007

December 2008January 2009

Allford Hall Monaghan Morris wins RIBA led competition Planning granted subject to conditions James Wigg Practice relocates to temporary premises Financial Close Site possession & demolition begins Construction on-site begins Practical Completion James Wigg Practice opens to patients

The Street Internally, the building has been designed around the concept of a street — a generous public/private space that welcomes users and leads them to the reception at the heart of the building from where all services are accessed.

At ground level a more formal, public garden has been designed which connects directly to the main waiting room where the café will be located. There is also a large rooftop terrace accessed from the staff room which is large enough for social occasions in the summer.

Feel proud to be working in a building which is hard to distinguish between an art gallery and a health centre.

Comments from the staff at Kentish Town Health Centre

Patients appear to be more relaxed in the waiting room. Our level of aggression at the front desk is remarkably reduced following moving to these premises.

Comments from the staff at Kentish Town Health Centre

It’s great to be able to step out onto the outside terraces to get a breath of fresh air. The connection between the outside and the inside of the building is fun because of the closeness of the trees to the upper windows and the greenery around the ground floor.

Comments from the staff at Kentish Town Health Centre

CDM Coordinator

Landscape Architect

Healthcare Consultant

Procurement Route

Approved Inspector

Acoustic Consultant

Fire Consultant

Planning Consultant

Managing CDM Ltd

Jinny Blom Landscape

Sonnemann Toon Architects

LIFT (Local Improvement Finance Trust)

Guy Shattock Associates Ltd

Adnitt Acoustics

ARUP Fire

DP9

Project TeamDeveloper

Tenant

Sub-Tenant

Main Contractor

Architect

Structural Engineer

Services Engineer

Graphic Designer

CICS (Camden Islington

Community Solutions)

Camden Primary Care Trust, NHS

James Wigg Practice (GP)

Morgan Ashurst Plc

(formerly Bluestone Plc)

Allford Hall Monaghan Morris

Elliott Wood Partnerships

Peter Deer Associates

Studio Myerscough